‘Frasier’: How the Revival Is Allowing Kelsey Grammer to Savor the Role
Preview
The doctor is in! Paramount+ is reviving Kelsey Grammer’s psychiatrist Frasier Crane for a new 10-episode season of Frasier. (The first two eps will also be broadcast on CBS on Tuesday, October 17.)
After clocking nine years on Cheers and 11 more on its Frasier spinoff series, Grammer told TV Insider one very specific reason he was ready to revisit his beloved alter ego in this revival comedy. Looking back, Grammer realized, “I didn’t necessarily enjoy [playing Frasier] as much as I could have or savored it as much as I should have.”
(Credit: Everett Collection)
Thank goodness, then, for this “third act,” as Grammer calls it, which includes big changes in Frasier’s life. He’s quit his popular Chicago-based daytime talk show Dr. Crane and he’s just buried his deceased father, Martin (played by John Mahoney, who died in 2018). But it’s mending fences with estranged firefighter son Freddy (Jack Cutmore-Scott) that brings him back to Boston. “Frasier’s definitely discovering that he missed some things [with Freddy] he wished he hadn’t,” Grammer explained before the actors’ strike.
(Credit: Paramount+)
So it’s no surprise that Frasier extends his stay when he reconnects with prickly Harvard psych professor pal Alan (Nicholas Lyndhurst) and his naive nephew David (Anders Keith), son of Niles and Daphne (David Hyde Pierce and Jane Leeves, who don’t appear in this series). Also in the cast: Freddy’s waitress-actress roommate Eve (Jess Salgueiro) and Harvard psych department head Olivia (Toks Olagundoye).
Familiar guest stars turn up, like Bebe Neuwirth as Dr. Lilith Sternin, Frasier’s ex and Freddy’s mother, and Peri Gilpin as Frasier’s sharp radio colleague Roz Doyle. There’s even a new bar hangout that’s similar to his old Cheers stomping ground, but this time it’s called Mahoney’s. “The idea was always ‘We’re going to honor John and his passing,’” says Grammer. So here’s a toast: It’s good to have you back, Dr. Crane.
Frasier, Premieres Thursday, October 12, Paramount+
This is an excerpt from TV Insider‘s October issue. For more in-depth, reported coverage devoted to streaming shows from the publishers of TV Guide Magazine, pick up the issue, currently on newsstands, or purchase it online here. You can also subscribe to TV Insider Magazine here now.
